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I think Carl Sagan once said, "In order to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe." Similarly, in order to ride a bike across a continent, you must first find a bicycle. After 2 months of ignorant Kijiji searching and hopeless, clutzy tinkering, I humbly recognized I didn't have a clue what I was doing and reached out for help to my local bike shop. With warmth, wisdom, and generosity, I was pointed in the direction of this beautiful green machine. We now have exactly 1 week to get to know each other before we head out on the road together for 3 months. It's not the scrappy, DIY vintage bicycle that I initially envisioned taking on this trip, but there is a lesson in learning to exchange my romantic narrative for realism - and I am extremely grateful to for this new bend in the road of my journey. Looking forward to seeing where these wheels take me. I leave next week! . Regram from the ever-awesome @cyclesmithhfx . #bikewander #cyclecanada #thegreatturning #bicycletouring #adventureisoutthere #optoutside #biketouring #biketravel #natureplay (at Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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I think Carl Sagan once said, "In order to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe." Similarly, in order to ride a bike across a continent, you must first find a bicycle. After 2 months of ignorant Kijiji searching and hopeless, clutzy tinkering, I humbly recognized I didn't have a clue what I was doing and reached out for help to my local bike shop. With warmth, wisdom, and generosity, I was pointed in the direction of this beautiful green machine. We now have exactly 1 week to get to know each other before we head out on the road together for 3 months. It's not the scrappy, DIY vintage bicycle that I initially envisioned taking on this trip, but there is a lesson in learning to exchange my romantic narrative for realism - and I am extremely grateful to for this new bend in the road of my journey. Looking forward to seeing where these wheels take me. I leave next week! . Regram from the ever-awesome @cyclesmithhfx . #bikewander #cyclecanada #thegreatturning #bicycletouring #adventureisoutthere #optoutside #biketouring #biketravel #natureplay (at Halifax, Nova Scotia)

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Caifornia(aaaaaaaa)

Technically, we already told you about our first experience in California: Death Valley National Park. But the California to the west of the Sierra Mountains is very, very, unlike the desolate and dry park we spent time in near the Nevada border. To us, California began with another humble reminder of how huge and powerful mountains are.

We had 'escaped' Death Valley and made it to a little town to the west of the Sierras called 'Lone Pine'. It was there that we planned to head north along the mountains and cut through them at Yosemite National Park - and it was there that we learned we could not. The pass through the mountains was closed due to snow, and likely would not open for several weeks. So, we were forced to drive south.

Crossing the Sierras into the San Juaquin valley was one of the coolest (and yet, warmest) experiences of the trip. On the west side of the mountains, we were welcomed back to 'the green part' of the map. "Grass! Trees! Rivers!" we shouted, like idiots, out Appa's windows as we cruised through a majestic valley.

Luke's his favorite smell is lilacs in bloom in early June. Something beautifully close to that smell permeated the air from Bakersfield all the way to the roots of the Sierras again, on the climb up toward Sequoia National Park: orange groves. Even though California is in a terrible drought, the central valley's human-made irrigation canals carry life-giving water to thousands of miles of neatly organized orange groves. You could even smell the oranges from the seat of a noisy, slightly smelly Appa. 

Please make a reminder to check out the blog again when “smellovision” technology is finally introduced - because we wish so, so, badly to be able to share that with you.

Did you know that California has more people than Canada? Now you do. And now you are prepared to feel how we felt when trying to get free camping in a state known for high prices, high population, and perpetually beautiful weather. After a driving day through the central valley we needed to find somewhere to camp near Sequoia National Park, and our usual methods were coming up empty. Thankfully, we picked up a technique from an Israeli couple we met in a New Mexican airforce base: go to Google's 'satellite view' and look for an empty spot. For us, that spot had to be suitable for a Class B camper van. We’re pretty proud of this boondocking spot:

A nice little cliff overlooking a beautiful river!

"Hello, you look like a big rock - mind us hiding behind you for the night? No? Grand!"

The next day we ventured through Sequoia National Park, home of General Sherman, the LARGEST tree in the world (Note: not 'tallest', but 'largest', biomass-wise).

Big big big treeeee.

Did you know that the leading cause of death' for Giant Sequoias is falling down?

Here he is: General Sherman. The largest living tree in the WORLD. If you can spot them, there is a little person at the bottom of the photo for context.

If you've read our blog up to this point you will have noticed that we spend a lot of time visiting America's National Parks. The Parks system is our favourite part of the USA - a message we've written in numerous Guestbooks in visitor's centres across the country. Naturally, we needed to visit Yosemite, the inaugural park of that system. 

It was exciting to be in 'the park that started it all' - a favourite place of environmentalist John Muir, and prototype for preservation of wild places. Yosemite boasts gorgeous waterfalls, impressive granite rock faces, and miles of hiking trails. Due to an impending storm, we were unable to hike as many trails as we would have liked, but enjoyed a fantastic taste of what the park had to offer by traversing switchbacks to the foot of Yosemite Falls.

Luke enjoying a drink from Yosemite Falls.

View of Yosemite Falls from the meadows below.

One of the many incredible granite cliffs in the park. 

We parted ways with Yosemite and headed to San Francisco, where we would meet up with our good pal, Martin. Martin works for a company with headquarters in Berkley, so that became our home-base for our weekend in San Fran. With a safe place to park Appa, we enjoyed the freedom of travelling in a city by foot, transit, and bicycle. The weekend flew by, but it was a truly fantastic time that included the following:

- Renting bikes for a full day and riding across the Golden Gate Bridge

- Getting lost in the city and learning the true meaning of a 'hill'

- Vintage shopping in the Haight- Ashbury district

- Biking across Golden Gate Bridge and getting our first great view of the Pacific Ocean

- Visiting TWO farmer's markets and enjoying delicious food

- Speaking of food: attending a massive food truck festival that happens every Sunday in a San Fran park

- Playing frisbee for hours overlooking the 'Frisco Bay

- Getting to see the 'Full Houses' while the show's theme song blasted from car windows

- Meeting some of the most wonderful people who opened their homes and hearts to us, and sharing great laughs and conversations under an eclipsing moon 

So, in sum, our first taste of California was delicious and sweet. We can't wait to tell you about the rest of the Pacific coast in Northern California that we explored with Martin.

Home in about a month!

Haley & Luke

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Desert Dessert

Our last night in Utah was spent in Cedar City at the high elevation we were used to, around 5500 feet (about 1600 metres). Pros and Cons were listed; we decided to go to Las Vegas.

The morning saw us losing most of our altitude, dropping into Nevada, like the Colorado River decided to do a long, long time ago. After all those outdoor adventures in Utah we were actually looking forward to a more urbanized locale for our next adventures. Besides, Vegas was there.

When we made it onto the Las Vegas strip, it slapped us with its identity. There was a lot of action for an April afternoon. It's almost impossible to describe in writing being on that living, throbbing, pulsating, jittery street they call 'the strip'.

We wandered through smoky casinos and grand hotels, marvelling at the social landscape carefully cultivated by gambling corporations. People on the street handed us small cards with naked ladies and phone numbers on them. A few bachelorette parties stumbled past us, searching for regrets and naughty stories to tell friends back in their hometown.

In a butterfly garden inside the lobby of a casino/hotel (yeah, exactly), we noticed something strange. The garden, upon closer inspection, was actually just a collection of potted plants, disguised to look like a beautifully tended, yet manicured, ecosystem. 

  This microcosm of Las Vegas perfectly captures the artificial world created there. The realization of the phoney and fake world around us left us feeling lied to by Vegas - a feeling the city tries to keep you from feeling with call girls and alcohol.

We were grateful to experience such a place, because this trip isn't just about seeing the USA in it's outdoor splendour, but ultimately we just didn’t like it there. So, we left, and don’t have many other pictures that will necessarily express Las Vegas - so here’s a picture of a horse-mermaid which probably comes close:

We were on the road after a quick 5 hours in Las Vegas, then, probably due to the conditioning of mass media, we were on our way to California. 

The California we met across the Nevada border had the same kind of dryness we’d been dealing with for a while at this point. Many of you probably recall us talking about how seeing a brand new ecosystem (the desert) was one our expected highlights of the trip. Well, we may have been in California, but the desert was going to take one last crack at us at Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley hold's the record for Earth’s highest recorded air temperature at 56 degrees C. Death Valley is the lowest point in North America. Death Valley is the driest part of North America at 2 inches of precipitation per year. And we were taking a used van into it. 

Driving into Death Valley. 

We grabbed a camp spot at sea level. We'll have to take your word for it, Mr. Signpost; there was no water in sight. There were apparently 3 mountain ranges between us and the Pacific ocean. Therein lies the secret to 'killing a valley’: rain shadows (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_shadow). On the East side of those mountains was where the rains fell and the green party took place (oh..we’ll get there), and on the west side was a desolate, barren, colourless place. But there is a beauty in that desolation that we'd come to admire.

‘Cool, marble.’

  Haley got to knock off a bucket list item by being photographed on a salt flat at Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level.

We met some wonderful people too, including a couple who we think may be the 60 year old version of ourselves. We had a really great evening under the stars chatting with Patrick and Dixie from Oregon, and we think they enjoyed us too. 

  The day we left Death Valley was full of literal ups and downs. Ups: asking for a shower and somehow getting a practically private pool for a couple of hours. Downs: Driving from below sea level to several thousand feet out of Death Valley with a 25 year old van. Appa didn’t overheat, but he did give Mommy and Daddy a tantrum threatening to do so.

It’s a strange thing to be worried about your vehicle’s heat one hour, and finding out winter snow is completely changing your week’s plans the next. We are terrible at remembering and recognizing the effect of altitude of weather, heck, seasons. Once out of Death Valley, we learned that our plans to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountain range through Yosemite National Park were impossible due to snow, and would require a detour hundreds of miles to the south of the Sierras. That was a real blessing in disguise...

Cliffhanger! (In honour of Game of Thrones being back)

H & L

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Utah's Magnificent National Parks

A fond hello again, dear readers. To begin, a matter of housekeeping:

To those who have sent us messages through the blog’s “Send us some love” button: thank you! We can’t exactly figure out how to respond…but we’ve read and enjoyed them. Feel free to email us at luke.hachey[at]gmail.com and haleyguest[at]gmail.com. 

ON TO UTAH!

Luke:

I’ve been excited for this place since working for Freewheeling Adventures last year. So many of our American guests said that their favourite place was southern Utah.

Wow. We’ve decided for this post that instead of putting in a few pictures to accompany the blog we’ll link to a Facebook album that hopefully everyone can access. We took a lot of pictures, but they barely come close to capturing our awe at the canyons and…everything of southern Utah. 

Check out the Facebook album by clicking here.

The last people we spoke with at a campground in Colorado suggested a back road route to Moab, Utah, rather than taking the main road. What a suggestion! We followed the Colorado River as it sliced trough the red rocks and weaved its way towards our destination.

The town of Moab is an adventure hub like no other. Every other person was on a mountain bike or otherwise looking extreme. Finding camping was nearly impossible for the first time on our trip, but we still managed to find a free spot. We’re pros at this point in guerrilla camping.

The La Salle Mountains on the left were a nice backdrop for a campfire our first night in Utah.

After filling up supplies and buying some truly excellent brown ale from the Uinta Brewing Company, we headed for the famed ‘Arches’ of the eponymous park. We saw many of them (as you can see) but the highlight was definitely the poster boy ‘Delicate Arch’, especially since we took great advice and saw it at sunset. Alone, the arch would have been beautiful, but surrounded as it was by a bowl of smooth sandstone and being backdropped by the snowy La Salle mountains made it even better. The place was pretty busy, with lots of people getting pictures within the arch. We naturally wanted that photo-op and asked a friendly passer-by to take our photo for us. The 12 year-old photography genius (editors note: dripping with sarcasm) didn’t think we’d want the actual ARCH in the photo…so we won’t be sharing that with you. 

The beautiful 'Delicate Arch' at Arches National Park.

The next day Haley spotted a coupon in the Moab visitor guide. The coupon said “Attention! Luke’s dream coupon!”, or it might as well have. Here was the chance to finally go skydiving, and with a view of the canyons and arches no less. Luke jumped out of a plane later that day. The owner was from Moncton. Everything was the best. THE BEST. 

Pictured: THE BEST.

Reluctantly on solid ground again we headed for the ‘Needles’ district of Canyonlands National Park. The night before entering we saw a familiar yellow van enter the same free desert campground. We thought it might be some people we briefly swapped van stories with outside White Sands, New Mexico - it was! Turns out that Highway Children (instagram.com/highwaychildren) Jamie and Wes were seeing some of the same places as us. It was an Oasis of social interaction for us - they’re cool people to hang with. Check out their Instagram and Etsy if you like cool vintage clothes they collect and sell on their adventures!

For whatever reason, we were feeling ambitious on the morning we entered Canyonlands and picked a doozy of a hike in the ‘Needles’. At the end of the 18km hike through slot canyons and desert vistas, we were exhausted, yet invigorated with the beauty of the desert. We’ll leave the photos to tell this story.

Southward we went. We saw Natural Bridges National Monument. (If you’d like to know the difference between an arch and a natural bridge, the NPS will happily pummel you with that information on every available bit of park literature)*.

Late one afternoon as we made spaghetti in a parking lot (common), and we overheard a man and his son talk about their excitement about visiting dunes and sledding somewhere. Haley in particular had grown weary at the presence of our sleds from previous dune expeditions. We happily donated the sleds to the dad. He repaid us with directions to the perhaps the most magnificent view on the trip.

Eeeeeveryone told us to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We got close to it, and found out it was closed. The South Rim was far away. We were very angry. And we moved on…

…Back to Utah! (Honestly, we were happy to leave Arizona).

Zion National park was another one of those must-see places according to previously encountered Americanos. It was snowing and a little chilly the day we arrived. THANK GOODNESS. Otherwise we would never have been able to camp inside the park. It was beautiful, but we couldn’t help but feel the experience was slightly deflated with the number of people on the trails with us. It actually got us thinking about the nature of preserving wild spaces for people to visit, the positive and negative aspects of making these amazing places accessible, and how to approach our own privilege and sense of entitlement when it comes to those spaces. So yeah… Zion’s canyon, vistas and overall beauty were thought-provoking and awe-inducing indeed.

Seeing the rare colour green in Utah at Zion NP.

Onward we drove back into winter. Or actually, only slightly north, to Bryce Canyon. A note on the weather in the Southwest: it makes no sense when you’re driving around as much as us. It’s so affected by the elevation, and we’re so used to sea level, that we constantly forget how being up in the sky makes things cold (Science). Bryce Canyon was even better with a dusting of snow. We’ll actually leave you now with the Bryce Amphitheatre. Just…wow.

Love from Haley and Luke. 

* A ‘Natural Bridge’ is formed by running water (river, flash floods) through sandstone rock, while arches are generally holes in ‘fins’ in the rock formed by other erosional forces. Aaaand now you know.

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Mountains and Mountains and Mountains

IT’S APRIL!

Which means we’ve been on the road for 2 whole months – exactly halfway through our journey. The occasional homesickness we experienced about a month into the trip has dwindled, and been replaced with a sense of normalcy. It feels like we have a well-established routine of living on the road; making food via propane burners, living without a reliable fridge, lots of hiking, and grabbing internet and showers when we can, wherever we can. 

But enough about that. We’ve got some cool stuff to catch you up on – our last blog concluded with a hike up a sand dune in Southern Colorado…

Colorado has mountains, you guys. They are big, and cool, and everywhere. We followed them north to Colorado Springs via Pueblo where we were lucky enough to pick up some authentic Colorado produce.

This photo is entirely unrelated. 

As it turned out, Manitou Springs, a nearby touristy burg was more to our speed than the busy Colorado Springs. An entire block of the town was dedicated to an authentic penny arcade! (Luke will now excitedly list that he played to following: Turtles in Time, Galiga, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong…) The games that actually cost a penny were pretty dated. And awful:

Sexism and Orientalism for only 1 cent! What a deal, the past!

The route from Manitou springs to our Westerly destinations required us to ascend and cross the continental divide and the rocky mountains. Our pictures probably aren’t going to do justice to the snowy plains that we dropped into between mountains.

Since we were in the area, we decided to check out a lesser-known National Monument - Florissant Fossils. It was here we saw our first redwoods. Redwoods in Colorado? Well, these were 32 Million years old…and petrified.

Whoopsie, we got here 32 million years too late to climb them.

When we descended back to a reasonable elevation we found ourselves in the cute town of Salida, Colorado, which coincided with our desire to take a break from travelling for a bit. It helped that it was full of nice cafes and thrift shops, and a completely free campground right outside of town next to the Arkansas River. This wasn’t a boon-docking spot, either. It was just a free campground - beside a much busier pay-campground… go figure.

Unfortunately we were so busy enjoying our relaxation time, we have no photos from Salida or our awesome campsite.  

After chilling out for a few days in that little mountain town, we kept driving west. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was our next Park destination, and it was cool. Specifically it was cool and snowed-in for the most part, almost unreachable for tourists. So, we grabbed a few horrible unnecessary selfies and kept driving.

The one glimpse we could get of the canyon bottom required some disobedience of the park signs, but was super worth it. That's the Gunnison River at the bottom!

Colorado National Monument was our first taste of what one could call “the landscape from Roadrunner”. We had made it to the fringe of Utah, where our most amazing adventures were to take place, which will have to wait for our next blog. In the meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of the very beautiful Colorado National Monument!

This was only the beginning of epic jump-kick adventures. Our next blog will be action packed with photos and stories of the coolest state yet on the trip - UTAH!

Hugs from Haley & Luke!

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Northern New Mexico & Southern Colorado

"A big, big, blog from the Southwest USA"

Okay, we know, we've been bad at updating the blog. But that's only because we've been doing so much awesome stuff! The only way to tell you about all of it is in one of Haley's favourite writing styles: a BIG OL' LIST! So, the last thing we wrote about was our epic day at White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico…

PART 1 - 'ABQ'

After two nights of sleeping under the super stars and super jets at the air force base near White Sands, we decided to head north towards Albuquerque. The first thing you notice about the city is that you can see ALL OF IT. Without any forest or hills to hide the urban center, it sprawls in front of you into the desert. That night we went to a short-form improv comedy show downtown, and had a really interesting taste of what a very meticulously produced and rehearsed show looks like. The performers put on a really funny show, and we’re excited to take home another improv experience back to Halifax for Make ‘Em Ups shows (www.MakeEmUps.com)

The next day we toured one of Albuquerque's newest attractions: previous sets of BREAKING BAD! As one of our favourite shows of all time, this was a must-do. For those unfamiliar with the show, the following will mean nothing to you. For those taking a slower pace watching the series: SPOILERS AHEAD. We saw Saul's office, the Crossroads Motel, the White Residence (!), the cafe where Lydia was slipped poisonous Ricin, Tuco's hideout, and Gus Fring's Laundromat/meth lab.

What are the chances of meeting a guy from Halifax outside Walter White’s house? Apparently very good. He took this picture for us!

PART 2 - SANTA FE

Only an hour north of Albuquerque is the small, eclectic, artsy town of Santa Fe. We'd heard that Canyon Road's art district is not to be missed - and that was true. An afternoon spent strolling through the DOZENS of galleries on the pedestrian-only road was hardly enough time. Our highlights were Barbara Meikle's incredibly colourful, textured paintings of horses, burros, and bulls, (www.barbmeikle.com) and Kat Livingood's dramatic photos of wild horses, bison, and timber wolves (www.katlivengood.com). Both of these warm, welcoming women gave us the impression that Santa Fe was a place full of good people - friendly locals buying us drinks confirmed that. It was really fantastic to get to spend some time appreciating art, exploring out aesthetic interests, and meditating on the meaning of creative expression. Here we overheared a woman say to an artist working on a sculpture outside: “I’m happy millionaires exist so that you can stay open for us to enjoy looking!”Luke’s favourite piece was 13,000 dollars, and he actually thinks that was a fair price.

Our last day in SF was a 'chores day', which means laundry, groceries, cleaning, and tune-ups for Appa. We were sweaty, sandy, and needed a shower badly by the time we finished. Luckily, we found an awesome community center with a pool to practice our front crawl and clean ourselves up. We were really happy with the time we spent in Santa Fe, and bid farewell to the city and the warmth of New Mexico with a heavy heart. But we had more MOUNTAINS TO CLIMB!

PART 3 - COOLORADO

The season may not have been optimal, but we weren’t going to pass up the extreme state of Colorado. We were crazy lucky on our first night there and found an amazing free campground in the Sangre de Christo mountains. We even got to have a campfire with 14 high school senior boys  - which was as hilarious as it sounds. They didn’t seem to notice that we were having difficulty fielding their questions about ‘Trailer Park Boys’ with all of them speaking at once, but were really friendly and enthusiastic.

At the Zapata Falls trailhead overlooking Sangre de Christo mountains and the Great Sand Dunes.

Zapata falls, where we stayed, had a beautiful frozen waterfall as well as a mountain hike. We figured we could hike up the 4 miles from 9000 to 11000 feet. Nope. We got about 3 miles up (that’s far when mountain climbing) and the trail stopped; whoever had so conveniently broken trail must’ve thought “naaawwwt worth it bro”. At least the people on it before us gave up when they hit 3 feet deep snow - we gave up a quarter mile later. The taste of bitter defeat accompanied us down the slopes.

An important lesson: Mountains are bigger and stronger than you. 

Colorado, despite being far from the ocean, held more sand dunes for us to explore next. Specifically, Great Sand Dunes National Park. They were a great test of our muscles yet again. We raced to the top of a 700 foot dune, bringing our trusty sled. Not as fast as snow, but thrilling nonetheless.

A big dune climb for a little girl.

The beautiful reward at the top.

We’re now in Southern Utah, but we promise another update soon to catch up!

Lots of love,

Luke & Haley 

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Quatro Super Bueno Days

Our first morning in New Mexico was much colder than we were expecting, having just put away a layer of blankets because "it's the desert and it's warm". We found a great boondocking spot (in a cow field) in the North-Western tip of the Chihuahuan Desert and had only a short drive to our next attraction: Carlsbad Caverns. It was to be our first taste of a southwestern National Park, and the idea of exploring some caves sounded neat. It wasn't neat, it was MIND BLOWING.

We're not sure if we can describe with words how incredible the 750 foot deep, 3 hour long hike underground at Carlsbad was, but we'll try. The main cavern entrance appeared out of nowhere as we walked through the park; the flat, arid, desert ground seems to fall away at your feet to reveal a gigantic black hole. On the descent, a flock of a few dozen cave swallows left their roost and spiralled around us singing, as if to bid us farewell from the daylight and welcome us to the approaching dark abyss (I write this poetically because it was an incredible moment for me -H.) The best part about all of this? We visited on an early March morning, on a day when all other tourists apparently thought "Carlsbad? Nah, not today!". For most of our time wandering around the caves, we were alone - which is apparently an incredible rarity according to park rangers, who said over 3000 people a day wander the caves in high season.

Here are some photos to illustrate the magnificent and awesome cavern experience. If you think a photo looks cool, multiply that feel in by 1000% and you will feel half of what it feels to see them in person.

The descent into Carlsbad.

The caves were lit with hidden lightbulbs meant to reflect the natural colours of the cave. 

We picked up some information from the visitor center and discovered we were only 40 minutes away from another National Park, slightly back inside Texas. And so it was that the following day we ascended Guadeloupe Peak, the highest point in Texas.

Wow, writing that in one sentence really doesn't seem to accurately reflect our grueling 3000 foot ascent, taking us to a final 8,751 feet. It was a wonderfully rugged trail to the top that ranged from desert in the start to a balsam fir forest near the peak. The park categorized the trail as 'strenuous', and we think that's fair for people who don't normally climb mountains. Hilariously, many of the notes in the guestbook at the peak were about people's excitement for something called "Whataburger". I suppose when your average guest is climbing mountains dreaming of fast food you don't need a category above strenuous.

The beginning of the hike - can you spot Appa?

Following a cliff up, and up, and then more up forever until you just die.

WE DID IT!

If you've made it this far, dear blog reader, we thank you and congratulate you; this blog is a big'un. Because there's more.

We wasted no time the day after the Guadalupe Mountains, and headed towards the White Sands National Monument via El Paso. That night we stayed in an Air Force base on a little mineral lake (no touchy, no swimmy, no drinky), where we thought we heard "sonic booms" from the jets above us. Well, turns out they weren't sonic booms, but missiles being tested in the 'White Sands Missile Test Range', which we were adjacent to. Whoopsie.

The next day at White Sands was MEGA cool. Much like the surprise of the coming across a huge cavern in the desert at Carlsbad, the 275 square miles of dunes at White Sands pop out of the scrublands in front of you like icing on carrot cake.

Hiking there was not on a traditional "trail". It was more of a "follow the sticks in the sand or be lost and potentially wander into a missile range" kind of dealio. After hiking we spent the rest of the day playing in the world's best sandbox. We had purchased a shovel up North in case Appa ever became stuck in snow, and used it at White Sands to dig holes! We also bought some sleds. Going down sand was cool, but inferior to snow in every way. (When I fell face-first into a dune on a botched standing-sledding attempt, it took days to get White Sands off my mind, a.k.a out of my scalp - L)

Phew. And thus concludes the most incredible 4 days of our grand advanture to date. Our next update will include a taste of improv and a Breaking Bad tour in Albuquerque, a review of Walmart parking lots, and the very neat, artsy city of Santa Fe.

xoxoxo H & L

PS - Thanks to everybody who's been reading this blog. We love being able to share our experiences with you all, and hope that you are learning, being inspired to travel, or just enjoying hearing of our adventures. We miss everybody at home, and know that our time away will make our return that much sweeter.

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Texas: Lone Star State of Mind

The last time we wrote a blog update was about our crazy time in New Orleans. Although we're far, far away from there right now (New Mexico!), we have lots to tell you about everything in between.

The shift in political and geographical landscapes driving from Louisiana into Texas was anything but subtle. The marshes and bayous we were replaced by crude oil refineries and smokestacks. And TRUCKS. So many trucks. Somebody told EVERYBODY there that cars are no longer a thing, and the only option from now on was trucks. And EVERYBODY was like "oh yeah ok that's cool I'll take two."

Our first destination in Texas was Austin, because: a) Houston sucks, and b) we wanted to check out some improv there. On the way there we stayed on an old highway/beach on the Gulf that was destroyed in a hurricane in 1990 and nobody cared enough to rebuild it. It was really neat to see the pavement eroded away by the ocean, but it was also really sad to see a beach so covered in trash. During our stay on the beach we met a man who "ran with the circus" and a woman who "may have been addicted to meth".

The top picture is a "pumpjack" used for crude oil extraction. It is also known as a: donkey pumper, nodding donkey, pumping unit, horsehead pump, rocking horse, beam pump, dinosaur, sucker rod pump (SRP), grasshopper pump, Big Texan, or thirsty bird.

The bottom picture is Appa on the eroded Highway 87.

We went to Austin to see Improv at the Hideout Theatre and were not disappointed. All in all we caught 3 shows over 2 nights. On a sunny Saturday afternoon we walked along the beautiful riverfront trails, rode a tiny train through a park (which fulfilled Haley's "best day ever" requirement) and saw THOUSANDS of Mexican Freetailed bats leave their bridge-roost at dusk. Click here for the video we took!

We also tried our hand at "sleeping in a parking lot in the center of the club district" and found the experience to be lacking. So, after that it was time to depart and head West again.

Fun fact: Austin is full of TURTLES!

The day after Austin saw Texas change dramatically to our eyes. All of a sudden, the world was different than we had ever seen in one major way. You can experience this yourself by looking at a satellite image of North America: We crossed from the Green part of the map, to the Brown part of the map.

Our first glimpse of the desert: a very weird and cool ecosystem.

We had a ton of fun in the East, but with our arrival in the Southwest, we had arrived at the most anticipated part of our trip.

Thus began 'The Week of Awe', which was the BEST, but will have to wait until the next Starbucks WiFi, because we are tired and full of TOO much coffee to focus.

Love you all, miss you lots! Haley & Luke

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Louisiana

Mardi Gras. We know these words to mean “Fat Tuesday” by simple translation. From experience we knew it to be Pancake Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lent. Though, Haley thinks EVERY day should be Pancake Day (*Haley/Syrup 2016*). When we told everyone we were going South there were a lot of suggestions for New Orleans. It was one place we knew we’d have to experience, even though, admittedly, neither of us had done much research about the place. The day we arrived in New Orleans was close to Mardi Gras the same way that advertisers think it’s appropriate to promote Christmas after Halloween. But Mardi Gras, it turned out, is not a day in New Orleans. It is a season, and we had stumbled upon one of the best times to be in the city.

After securing weekend parking that allowed us to stay in Appa and be in walking distance from the famous 'French Quarter' (what a score!), we set off to explore the 'Garden District'. It was full of beautiful old homes and too-hip-for-anyone coffee shops, surrounded by massive deciduous trees dripping with old spanish moss.

Something we learned pretty quickly in 'NOLA'; you can drink ANYWHERE. On the street, out of bars, in a park, in the dark - as long as it's not wrapped in glass, those coppers can't arrest your ass. Moving on... Friday night we saw our first 'Krewe', which is what parade organizing groups are called. Krewes work all year to prepare floats, dances, and 'throws', which are little trinkets (mostly beads) chucked into the crowd's outstretched arms as each float passes. Oh yeah, if you're attending a Mardis Gras Parade you get PRESENTS. Although it was fun, crazy, and weird to take part in, by the end of the parade the streets looked like Oscar the Grouch took a shit on New Orleans. Just, garbage eeevvvvverywhere.

People clamour for the attention of the bead-throwers. Also, most of the parade is actually just mediocre high school bands and scantily-clad cheerleading troupes with questionable dance moves.

We followed the parade route downtown, and soon found ourselves in the French Quarter. To find our way to the notoriously debaucherous Bourbon Street, we found a girl with sparkly sequinned jeans and, as Luke put it, 'follow Rafiki, he knows da way". Sure enough, we were led to streets packed with drunk revellers, under balconies full of young men looking to trade beads for boobies. One girl got the instructions backwards and flashed her fanny, but the guys didn't seem to mind, and she was paid amply in beads of many colours.

Saturday night we attended "The Krewe of Chewbaccus", a sci-fi themed parade that featured bicycle floats and home-made throws. There were so many fun fantasy and sci-fi references, including 300 "Rolling Elliots" complete with red hoodies and basket ETs!! It was much better to receive a few carefully made gifts from people in amazing costumes than droves of garbage probably manufactured nowhere near New Orleans.

The AWESOME Chewbaccus Parade! We left New Orleans feeling that we packed much of what the city has to offer in a very short time, including the worst hangover ever experienced (RIP Haley's brain cells). But we didn't go on this trip for cities, so next we headed to the BAYOU! In the Atchafalaya, we rented a canoe and paddled silently through a grey and still bayou, with Luke calmly manoeuvring between cypress trees in swampy shallows, and Haley peeing herself in the bow in fear of sure gator attack. The hunt was a success, with a total of two gators spotted.

Evidence!

We're about a week behind with the blog right now, so check back soon for our adventures in Texas!

Warmer than you, Haley & Luke

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Bayous, Beaches, and Birthdays

Move over, Lord Stark (RIP), for Winter never came to Alabama, nor Florida. We have started to think of our journey as a series of phases at this point. This latest must certainly be characterized as a relaxation phase. As usual, we spent nights in beautiful and free National Forests. We saw our first bayous, cotton fields, and (eek) Confederate flags.

One afternoon, we entered Conecuh national forest and found a great camping place next to “Buck Pond”. We spend the evening and morning on a boardwalk leading to the middle of the pond watching Grebes, ducks and oh so many turtles. There was a sign saying “Beware of Alligators”, however, the massacred deer corpse around the corner was a more poignant warning. Alas, we left without a sighting. Maybe it was too cold for them. 24 degrees C in February must be awfully uncomfortable for our cold-blooded cousins.

Florida was never really on our priority list. It always looked so out of the way on maps. Lucky for us (but rather unfair for Alabama tourism coffers) Florida juts out further west than we realized and occupies some beautiful Gulf coast. DEM BEACHES.

We spent a few days around Pensacola and the dunes of the Gulf National Seashore before heading West towards Alabama once again. We discovered there was a ferry that crossed Mobile bay so we could avoid another city and stay on a more scenic route.

We arrived at the ferry terminal on a beautiful, if slightly foggy, day. Then, we waited. And waited. And made friends with some cyclists waiting. And called the ferry operators. And found out the ferry was cancelled for the day because of fog.

Bummer, right? We would have to go 110 miles around the other way. Expensive for Appa, daunting for our new cycling friends. Everyone left the terminal except for 2 Canadians in an Appa, 2 American cyclists, and 2 Polish cyclists. One of the Canadians had a birthday! It was Haley! With the next ferry scheduled for 9 AM we backtracked to a store for birthday cake, wine and whiskey and had an awesome party with our new friends. Haley was sung the Polish version of Happy Birthday and saw a ~*BIRTHDAY DOLPHIN*~ to boot.

The social time was a great refresher for both of us, and a great cap to the coastal relaxation phase. We set our sights on New Orleans, and unknowingly…Mardi Gras season. 

H & L

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Blue Ridge Mountains & Southern Hospitality

When last we spoke, ye anonymous readers, we were leaving the comforts of Leesburg Virginia and heading south. We followed some excellent advice and drove the ‘Skyline Drive’ over the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia. The photos don’t do the views justice, but let’s just say that the double-plus-hills were aptly named. The 100 mile drive was at roughly 5000 feet the whole way, with something like 75 look out points to the East and West. It was great, now that we had accomplished our goal of out-driving winter, to experience the road portions of the trip off the interstate. But winter had other plans…

Above photo: One of the many scenic look-offs along the Sky Line drive.

Winter decided to visit Georgia with a once-in-a-generation ice storm juuuuust in time for our arrival. With the help of some free Burger King wi-fi, Haley planned a route to bypass the storm ‘round Tennessee way and into northern Georgia.

We rolled into a campsite in the Chattahoochee National Forest by dusk, feeling secure that we'd missed the storm. We were right - kind of. The next day we awoke to about 15cm of fresh powder, and to our surprise, a LOT of fallen trees. The forests there just weren't used to that kind of snow, and over the night several pines had fought the good fight with nature, and lost.

Above Photo: Before settling in for the night, Haley insisted that we move the van backwards to find more level ground. Had we stayed in our original spot, we'd have gotten a love tap from a pine tree.

Above photo: Luke contemplating how to scrape snow off Appa's roof.

After crawling through felled trees out of the forest, we decided to visit Rome, Georgia, because a) it was close, and b) it's visitor's centre had a train caboose. There we received the warmest southern welcome we could have imagined.

The lady at the Roman information centre provided us with enough glossy promotional material about local attractions to make one mean ozone-killing campfire. This included free local gym passes which we have relied upon for showers on the road. Darlene (or Debbie…Brandine…no….Sugar maybe?) was joined by another colleague who asked to take our picture at the train caboose “for the Facebook page”. As of this writing, we have not made the cut.

In the end, we were swept off our feet by their barrage of hospitality and bought some local blue ribbon local jam. Mission accomplished, ladies. 

Haley & Luke P.S. After the snow storm, the temperatures rose and the sun came out - we DID out-drive winter!

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Capital Idea!

After 2 long days of driving southward, we played real-life 'Stumble Upon' and landed in Gettysburg - site of the infamous Civil War battle. The museum included more exhibits than an afternoon could fit, a fantastic documentary, and a 'Cyclorama'. What the heck is a Cyclorama? ..is exactly what we asked, too. A 360-degree painting that's 42ft high and longer than a football field, that's what. Turns out that in the 19th century, painters popularized this medium as a form of entertainment, often using narrators to tell the story of the scene depicted. The story of the battle at Gettysburg was moving, if not visceral, amplified by the emotions displayed by other attendees.

This is only a fraction of the full painting. Check out the diorama in the foreground that was made to blend into the painting! Afterwards, we arrived at our first stop on the trip: Washington, DC. We were very lucky to stay with a friend who lived just outside Washington in Virginia, and put us up in her wonderful "B&B Chez Monique"! Here we got some rest and re-charged, for we had a pretty packed itinerary for our long weekend in the Nation's Capital.

Our first time driving from Virginia into the District of Columbia was awesome, not in the cool 90's way, but the traditional sense of the word: we were in awe. Marble buildings lined every street, and pillared monuments nestled in public parks popped up around every corner - Washington is a place that celebrates the Nation's history with grandeur…and marble.

Here’s a list of things we did. We still can’t believe we got to see so much:

Natural History Museum - Precious stones! Evolution of Humans! Book-learning! Air and Space Museum - Jets! Biplanes! Voyager! Apollo! National Mall - Delightfully uncommercial! Botanical Gardens - Got us excited for the real desert we’re visiting. Lincoln Memorial - After visiting Gettysburg, it was especially poignant to visit this iconic statue.

Great Falls National Park - a great way to see the Potomac river in its tumultuous adolescence before it gracefully ages into DC and onto Chesapeake bay.  Georgetown - Trendy. Trendy. Trendy.  National Cathedral - Beautifully constructed, and has a cool exhibit about the damage it sustained a 2011 earthquake.  National Zoo - ____, ____, and ____, OH MY! (Pick 3: Pandas, Elephants, Cheetahs, Lemurs, Wolves, Tamarinds, Andean Bears, Sea Lions…)

As you can see, we did a lot in DC. Please forgive us for not elaborating more - we have the Blue Ridge Mountains to explore.

Love,

Haley & Luke

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5 States, 1 Day

Phew. Writing this blog fro Harrisburg, PA, it's hard to believe how much ground we've covered already. 

Our journey began at the US/CAN border, where Luke and I were both ridiculously nervous for what turned out to be a ridiculously easy border crossing. Moments before arriving at the border, we scrambled to erase the apostrophe and 'u' in A'murica on our fridge chalkboard, lest we offend any 'Murican border officers and end up detained for hours made to recite the pledge of allegiance. The actual crossing went something like this:

"Where are you folks headed?" "On a big road trip! But first to Washington." "You have any vegetables or agricultural products with you?" "We have some carrots" "I don't care about carrots." And then we were in America! That night we slept in Maine, which is a lot like New Brunswick and Nova Scotia... so we didn't stay too long.  The next day was our big driving day: 5 STATES in 1 DAY! Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. After taking advantage of NH's lack of sales tax, crossing the Hudson River (see pic), and checking out a Dunkin' Donuts in Scranton, PA, we decided to get as far south as we could to avoid a winter storm forming over much of Eastern USA. That means we awoke the next day in a parking lot covered in ice and snow, with a very grumpy looking local shaking her head in disapproval of our parking choice.

The Hudson River full of ice.

Today the plan is to check out Gettysburg National Military Site, then on to Washington where we'll be spending the weekend with my parent's kind and accommodating friend, Monique. There's also 19 free museums in Washington, so please feel free to place bets on how many we'll be able to see before our eyeballs fall out and brains burst.

Haley PS- We FINALLY named our van! It's name is APPA!! (Ah-pah). We named it after a flying bison from a favourite show of ours, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Yip yip!

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How To Car

Any big trip is going to have a planning phase. When Haley and I settled on a road trip we were faced with purchasing our first vehicle (and effectively, home). Things weren’t too daunting to start off: we both were licensed drivers. Had either of us purchased or owned a vehicle though? Nope.

I hate shopping. Thankfully, Haley and Doyle are Kijiji experts, and after visiting a few abused minivans we landed on our baby. It was born in 1992, a good year, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992 to make your own judgement). According to that page, ’92 was the year that Windows 3.1 came out! Not a great year for computers, in retrospect, so fittingly it was our van’s ‘computer’ that fried first in December 2013.

I’m pretty new to living in Halifax. I don’t have any mechanic friends. It was in the middle of a storm and winter parking ban that the van would not start I asked the tow truck driver to take it to someone he trusts (effectively making him someone I trusted). Our van came back to us one month and 90 minutes of discussing the mechanic’s trips to jail later. But the price was fair, and I was motivated to learn about vehicle maintenance.

So today, on the first official day of our trip, I learned from Dad (who better?) some basic car maintenance: replacing spark plugs, changing oil, etc. He told me I made his day and he really made mine. I may be more interested in playing pretend and telling jokes to audiences, but Learning to Car, and all that comes with it has been a ride already.

Luke